1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manipulating components of a user's back, such as muscles, joints, bones, tendons, ligaments, etc., which provides a rotatable seat pad for holding a user's pelvis and a pair of handles for controlling rotation of the seat pad such that the user's pelvis and the user's back are rotated relative to each other.
2. Description Of The Related Art
Lower back pain plagues a large percentage of the adult population. As is generally known, swimming is an excellent exercise for reducing many types of lower back pain. That is, the pelvic rotation produced during swimming causes movement in the swimmer's back (including, but not limited to, the muscles, joints, bones, tendons and ligaments) which often relieves lower back pain.
Although swimming is an excellent exercise for relieving lower back pain, many of those who suffer from lower back pain are unable to swim on a regular basis due to, for example, physical, financial or climatic restraints. Accordingly, swimming machines, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,513, have been developed to provide an exercise alternative to swimming which most people can do regularly.
Conventional swimming machines, however, suffer from a drawback that is also inherent in swimming. specifically, conventional swimming machines allow free pivoting of the pelvis and do not allow control over the degree of pelvic rotation. As a result, conventional swimming machines may cause pelvic under-rotation, which can diminish the therapeutic effect of the exercise, or pelvic over-rotation, which can harm the user's back even further.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus which manipulates a user's back by rotating the user's pelvis in a manner similar to that of swimming, and which provides a way for the user to control that rotation.